Fear of Driving

Hypnosis, treating your fear of Driving



Scared to drive your car?

Hampshire hypnotherapist, Erica Walsh treats clients with the fear of driving.

I have never been in a crash, and yet I am scared to drive my car!

People who have been driving for many years can suddenly develop an irrational fear of driving. You do not need to have been in an accident to fear driving on a motorway, or any other road. Thinking logically, driving a car is not a predictable way of travelling because we can cannot control the driving of others. Predictability is the key word because, if you like to feel in control when driving your car, any feelings of unpredictability will result in your focusing on negative events. For example, ‘if I keep off the motor way I will be safe!’

I have been in a crash, and am scared to drive my car!

If you believe the fear of driving may have developed as a result of an accident in your car – ask yourself this question: ‘Why am I afraid, when thousands of other people who have accidents have no difficulty getting back to driving? The answer is, it doesn’t matter how long you have been driving prior to the development of the anxiety. However, a previous negative experience acts as a trigger. The trigger experience is then accepted by the sub-conscious mind and translated as a true and real belief that driving is a dangerous and scary experience. You then start to think of the experience using one of the two following examples:

a) driving is unpredictable, and therefore a potential danger to be avoided;
b) driving is unpredictable, and in spite of this, I have the skills and resources required to drive my car safely and responsibly.

Why am I suddenly anxious about driving?

You are probably anxious in other areas in life where you feel ‘out of control’, or as I mentioned before, in circumstances of unpredictability. The onset of the fear of driving may have been where you gradually felt out of control, or if there was a ‘trigger experience’.